The four main objectives of Dr. Poon's Metabolic Diet is to help readers:

To combat obesity related diseases

To lose fat and preserve muscle and bone

To lose weight quickly and safely

To keep weight off for life

I started this diet program a few years ago to help my patients with medical problems that were secondary to their obesity. After a ten-percent reduction in their weight, most of their medical problems became less severe, if not totally gone. This is particularly true for patients with metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, indigestion, gastroesophageal reflux, high serum triglycerides, high serum cholesterol, polycystic ovarian syndrome, fluid retention, sleep apnea, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. Frequently I am asked by surgeons to help their patients to lose weight pre-operatively, in order to lower their peri-operative and post-operative morbidity and to decrease the chance of disease recurrence.

This diet is designed to lose body fat, especially the fat that is around the waist area (which is deemed a risk factor for heart disease) and to maintain the lean muscle mass. The net effect will be to lose inches from your waistline and to decrease your percentage of body fat. I will show you that it is not how much you eat but what you eat that causes you to gain weight in the first place. None of my patients have ever told me that their reason for gaining fat in the abdomen was because they ate too much fatty meat. All however will admit that they had been eating too many carbohydrates.

Many patients have told me they do exercise routinely and watch their diets, however, still end up with weight gain. This is because exercise without the proper diet will not work unless you are doing hours and hours of cardiovascular exercise daily and decrease your daily calorie intake by one third. The problem with the calorie counting-type of diet is, the patient feels hungry all the time.

This diet will let you eat as much as needed to satisfy your hunger and you lose weight at the same time.

When patients tell me that they are watching their diet, they usually mean that they are eating less meat because they were told that eating meat is not healthy. Even when my patients tell me that they are eating a low-carb diet, after going over their food diary, I often find that they are actually eating a high-carb diet. It is because people consider bread and pasta only as carbohydrate and do not know that there are many more food sources that are full of carbohydrate. Patients also try to avoid seafood because of the belief that seafood, especially shellfish, is high in fat and cholesterol. I will show you that you can eat meat, seafood and shellfish, and still improve your lipid profiles.

While you are in this program, your bodily functions will be monitored to make sure that you are proceeding with the diet correctly and that your body is not suffering from any adverse complications. You will be required to do blood and urine testing regularly as needed. This diet is completely safe if followed properly. By following this diet plan diligently, you will be burning off fat 24 hours a day, even when you are sleeping! Typically a patient will lose an average of 5 to 7 pounds during the first week and 3 to 4 pounds the second week during the Fat Burning Induction Phase (Phase 1). A loss of 1.5 pounds weekly is common during the Continued Weight Losing Phase (Phase 2).

Once you have achieved the necessary weight loss, I will then show you how to eat properly and maintain your weight and health during the Maintenance Phase (Phase 3).

I do not claim this is a miracle diet and this diet may not be suitable for everybody. Give this diet a try for eight weeks and see for yourself how well you feel and look after a 10% reduction in your weight.